


That's the Spirit!

by thesatellitepirate



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: College AU, First Date, Ghost Whisperer AU, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Laith, M/M, implied shatt - Freeform, klance, self indulgent fluff, the title is a pun due to who I am as a person, there's like one angsty line and after that it's all good in the nehiborhood lads, well sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 12:20:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12254280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesatellitepirate/pseuds/thesatellitepirate
Summary: "So...you see dead people."Lance stops fiddling with the straw sticking out of his milkshake to look up at the man sitting across from him and wrinkles his nose. "I like to call them 'the departed', or 'ghosties' if I'm feeling festive, it really dials down the morbidity. But, um, yeah. I see dead people." He shrugs and leans forward to take a sip of the chocolate monstrosity he had ordered.





	That's the Spirit!

**Author's Note:**

> Here, have the ghost whisperer (sort of) au that no one asked for. I hope you lads get a kick out of it!

"So...you see dead people."

Lance stops fiddling with the straw sticking out of his milkshake to look up at the man sitting across from him and wrinkles his nose. "I like to call them 'the departed', or 'ghosties' if I'm feeling festive, it really dials down the morbidity. But, um, yeah. I see dead people." He shrugs and leans forward to take a sip of the chocolate monstrosity he had ordered. 

Keith crosses his arms as he leans back against the gaudy orange booth they're sitting in. It's a little past 8pm and it's still too early in the day for  this. He opens and closes his mouth twice before settling on, "Do you start off all of your dates like this?" 

"Usually, yep." He pops the "p" and sends a winning smile Keith's way. 

Keith raises an eyebrow, "And..uh..." he leans slightly forward, genuinely curious, "How does that typically work out for you?"

Lance makes a breathy sound that could almost be identified as the  beginnings of a less-than-sincere laugh and glances briefly at the tabletop before looking back up with a small smile. "Admittedly not that well." He tilts his head to the side considering for a moment and then adds "Or very well. Kind of. It depends I guess? Some people think it's really cool! Other people... well, basing it off of the whole 'excusing themselves to the restroom and never coming back' thing, do not." He bites his bottom lip and tries his best to don the easy going, chipper expression that Keith has seen on him in passing on campus for the past few months. And, sure Keith may not be a master at deciphering the meaning behind the subtle shifting of the facial muscles on most people, but even he sees the pervasive nervousness in the other boy's eyes. They're blue. Dark gems shining up at him from a tanned face dotted with freckles. The earnestness in them is what keeps Keith from getting up and heading for the exit of Baku's Dine and Dash. It doesn't hurt that the guy is pretty cute. 

"So why bring it up?" Look, his date is possibly crazy, but he's been a little curious about this guy since they'd accidentally run styrofoam-coffee-cups first into each other on the way to class at the beginning of Fall semester. The encounter had started with two stained shirts, one very ruined notebook, and a shouting match, but, in what Keith would learn to be Lance fashion, ended in laughter. They only had one class together and sat on opposite ends of the room, so there was nothing between them but the occasional hello and one of them catching the other staring in the middle of a lecture until they'd ended up at the same bus stop earlier this week and Lance had asked him out for drinks. Of course, Lance's idea of 'going out for drinks' appearantly meant meeting up for milkshakes? Which Kieth finds kind of...adorable. Whatever. 

"First of all, it's a hell of a conversation starter. Assuming my conversation partner doesn't immediately call me nuts and run away." He grimaces before taking a sip of his milkshake and continuing. "Also, I don't...um." He removes one of his fists from under his chin and starts tapping a beat on the table with his fingers before liking off to the side. "I guess I'd rather be upfront about it? I mean, hypothetically speaking, imagine this date went really well because I somehow managed to make you believe I'm as charming as I want you to think I am." 

Keith snorts. "Charming? Good luck with that."

Lance mouth drops open and enlists his previously tapping fingers to point across the table at his date and exclaim, "Hey, I held open the door for you, that was very suave and charming!" 

Keith raises an eyebrow, "If I'm recalling it correctly, it took you more than 30 seconds to realize it was a push door instead of a pull on." 

"In my defense, most of those doors look the same." 

"Hmmm... sure." Keith nods his head in mock agreeance. Lance makes a choking noise and opens his mouth to launch a counter argument, but Keith makes it to the punch first. "So, you're hypothetical situation, how does the rest of it go?" 

Lance makes a pouty face and then takes a short sip of his drink. "Right. So, I've won you over with my charming whiles." 

Keith smirks." Hypothetically."

Lance rolls his eyes. "Yes, hypothetically. So say we go on a few more dates. And, at first, you might just explain away the occasional lights flickering when I'm around with bad wiring. You'll think that it just slipped your mind that you decided put your textbook in the refrigerator instead of on my coffee table when you were over at my place or something. But like, three months down the line you'll be staying the night and wake up for a midnight snack and be a little confused as to why there are dishes throwing themselves around the kitchen. And then I have to explain the whole ghost thing and it gets really awkward and you call me crazy, leave, and never call me again. So. Yeah. I like to be upfront about it." He averts his eyes and starts to play with his straw again, pulling it in and out of his beverage. 

Keith frowns, clears his throat, and asks, "I'm guessing that specific situation has happened before?"

Lance's gaze flicks over to him and the twist of his mouth is a little bitter, but not utterly devoid of humor. "Gee, how could you tell?" 

Keith nods as he says "I have good instincts."

A short giggle escapes from Lance. "Can't argue with that, I mean, you did say yes when I asked you out." And then he has the audacity to wiggle his eyebrows and wink, which earns him a small laugh and an amused eye roll from the man sitting opposite of him that quite visibly lift his spirits.

Their waitress comes by to refill Keith's coffee and Lace stares at him in abject horror as Keith reaches across the table to grab all of the sugar packets left in the little metal holder and proceeds to rip them open and dump their contents into his dark roast. He's stirring the grains in with his spoon when he looks up and see his date's  facial expression and let's out a defensive, "What?".

Lance shakes his head, "I let it slide the first time you did it, but that was mostly because I don't even know what to say." He pauses, "Wait, that's a lie, I always know what to say which is why I never shut up." He rests both of his elbows on the table and to Keith's utter disbelief, slaps his hands into a praying position in front of his face and immediately gestures down with them. "Why in the name of all that is holy are you drinking your coffee like that? Nine sugars? That coffee cup is tiny, are trying to give yourself a coronary? Because there are better ways to test out the whole ghost seer thing." 

Keith snorts, "Not only did you just, what do you even label an inhale-boi meme action? Is there a usable term for it? Whatever you call it, you just did it in real life after telling me that you live in an episode of Ghost Hunters. I cannot believe you have the audacity to judge me for my, perfectly reasonable, might I add, coffee tastes. Nine sugars is a more than acceptable ratio thank you very much." He makes a point of not dropping eye contact when he lifts the cup and takes a long sip before placing it neatly down on the table again with a smirk. 

Watching Lance fight the grin trying to take resident on his face is amusing to say the least. "Do you feel refreshed?"

"Oh, absolutely."

The laughter that bursts forth from the Cuban man's lungs is as boisterous and infectious as the first time Keith had heard it. It's not the kind of laugh YA authors like to compare to bells, actually it could probably be considered a little obnoxious if it wasn't so warm and genuine. It manages to do something not entirely unpleasant to Keith's stomach. 

When they both quiet down Lance very grandly says "I suppose I could overlook your strange and unusual-"

Keith leans forward and rests his crossed arms on the table when he interrupts by clearing his throat. "I believe the words you're looking for are perfectly valid and taste bud friendly."

Lance shakes his head without losing his smile. "How about we just go with.... interesting?"

Keith shrugs, "I can live with that."

"Okay, I suppose I can overlook your ," and Lance is sure to grin as he makes air quotes with his fingers when he says the word, "'interesting' coffee habits if you can be cool with my ghost thing."

Keith narrows his eyes but he's unable to hide the amusement in them when he says "I don't remember air quotes being a part of the deal McClain. I feel lied to."

Lance immediately clutches his hands to his chest and mimics the voice of a southern bell, "Oh my, what have I done? How could I have betray the trust of a potential suitor? Mother and Papa will have to raise my dowry or I'll be an old maid. Six lambs instead of four. How will the farm survive without them? How ever can I earn back your unyielding confidence? 

"You can start with losing the accent, Scarlett." Keith deadpans. 

Lance giggles again and Keith chinks his coffee cup against his teeth when he raises it up to take a sip because he wasn't expecting himself to be smiling. This is probably the most fun he's had on a first date, scratch that, any date in, well....ever? Sure, Lance is either cuckoo or has his own land line into the paranormal world, which is certainly an... interesting turn of events, but the guy is also really funny and more than a little pretty. Keith maybe, sort of, kind of would not completely mind if this turned into a regular thing. He realizes he's been staring when Lance looks up at him after draining the rest of his shake and Keith, being somewhat easy to fluster in social situations, spits out the first thing that his brain comes up with. "So, are they aware of it?" 

Lance tilts his head to the side and hums out a confused, "Hmmm?"

"The uh..." Keith picks up a discarded sugar packet and starts twisting it, "the departed? That's what you said you called them, right?" Lance gives him an affirmative nod and Keith finishes his question with "So, do they like, know that you can see them or whatever?"

"Oh! Uh, they can sort of sense it I guess." He shrugs. "Not all of them notice that I can hear them but the ones that figure it out usually ask me to do stuff. Last wishes and junk like that so that they can move on to whatever it is that lies in the great beyond." 

"That sounds..." Keith pauses to search for an appropriate word.

Lance wastes no time in filling in the blank. "Really cool and mysterious? Totally selfless of me? Amazing?"

Keith shrugs, "Annoying, actually."

Lance sputters and then throws his head back as he laughs.

And Keith must look bewildered because Lance sobers up a little and grins at him when he says "Sorry, I've just never heard that one before."

"Am I right though?" Keith asks as he drops the twisted sugar packet into Lance's empty glass and picks up another one to deform.

"Oh, yeah, abso-pausa-lutely. It gets really annoying sometimes." He lets out another short laugh and gestures wildly as he says the next bit. "Okay, just imagine this. You're sitting on the toilet minding your own business, doing you own toilet related things, and out of nowhere an old man floats up through the tiles to demand that you break into his apartment and steal his cat so that his neighbor Debra doesn't get her badly manicured nails on him."

Keith chuckles, "That sounds invasive."

"It was! He just popped up and then had the audacity to laugh at me when I realized I didn't have any toilet paper left. I had to call my roommate on my cell to beg him to bring me some."

Keith doubles over and Lance shoots Keith with a knowing look and very seriously says, "Toilet paper is no laughing matter Keith." Which causes them both to laugh so hard it takes a minute or two for each of them to catch their breath.

When Keith finally has air in his lungs again he asks, "So did you steal the cat?"

"Of course! I couldn't just let Debra snatch her! Blue deserved someone with nicely filed nails and she instantly fell in love of course, no feline can resist me. Hold on, let me show you a picture." He pulls his phone out of his back pocket and Keith swears it takes him under five seconds to find an image of the prettiest gray cat Keith has ever laid his eyes on. "She's a Blue Russian, old Eddie wasn't a very creative thinker in the naming department, but it kind of suits her anyways."

Keith's voice is surprisingly warm when he admits, "She's really cute." Maybe he should think about getting a cat, if the look of unadulterated affection on Lance's face while he scrolls through pictures of Blue is anything to go by adopting a cat could only improve Keith's day to day. 

Lance pockets his phone again and focuses his attention back on Keith. "It doesn't always work out that great though. The whole ghost interaction thing, that is." His eyes go dark for a moment and the light all of the way up again and he exclaims, "Oh man, the craziest was when I accidentally went on a date with one of them!"

Keith chokes on his coffee and Lance leans across the table to pat him on the back until he stops coughing. "Hold on, what? When? How?!"  
   
Lance waves his hands back and forth. "Oh, no Keithy-boy. I can't tell you all of the really good stories on the first date!" 

Keith raises an eyebrow, "Are, you're saying I'll have to wait until date number two?"

"Hmm..." Lance makes a big deal out of looking pensive and finally smirks at his companion. "Maybe. You might have to wait until date number three or four. That story is pretty hilarious but it's also super embarrassing. 

Keith looks up at Lance through his bangs, "What I'm getting out of this is that you're holding blackmail worthy ghost stories ransom so I'll go on more dates with you?"

Lance nods "Oh, absolutely." He leans in and whispers, "Is it working?"

Keith closes enough of the rest of the distance between them so that they're almost nose to nose and let's his gaze fall down down to Lance's lips for a brief second before shifting it back up to those widened blue eyes. "I guess you'll find out" He sits back in the booth. "So, besides running errands for the uh... dearly departed, what do you do for a living?"

It takes a moment for Lance to find his words again, and Keith is pleased to see that his companion has been colored red. "So, uh, you do believe me? About the whole Jennifer Love Hewitt ghost whisperer situation...thing."

Keith reaches up and rubs the back of his neck."I mean, honestly I'm still kind of skeptical. It is sort of, um, out there? But I suppose it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility. I mean, if my brother's boyfriend's kid sister is capable of constructing an argument good enough to half convince me the lochness monster exists, I don't see why I can't consider the prospect of there being actual ghosts in the world."

"So, you're cool with it? Even though it's totally bizarre and kind of spooky?" And boy oh boy, hope is a pretty picture on Lance McClain's face and Keith's stomach is doing that weird thing again.

"Well, I guess I can become cool with it if it's you anyways." Aaaaand now Keith is pretty sure he's the one turning into a tomato. "I mean, you make me laugh and you're not all that terrible to look at so..."

Lance barks out a laugh. "Wow, you are really bad at complementing people, it's kind of impressive." Why are this guys teeth so inhumanly strait? Is that a ghost whisperer thing? You commune with the dead and you're rewarded with good looks and a thousand kilowatt smile? "If I'm understanding you correctly though, I do believe you just called me cute." 

And Lance looks so utterly pleased with himself that Keith can't help but stare across the table at his date and deadpan, "You have spinach in your teeth." 

"What?! No way!" Lance scrambles his backpack and starts digging through it. "Why didn't you tell me before?!" He finally finds the little compact he's looking for, it's got a galaxy painted on the outside case. "I can't believe I-" and just before he opens the compact he realizes it. "Wait. I haven't eaten anything involving leafy greens today." He glares over at Keith but it's entirely half-hearted.

Keith sends Lance his own shit eating grin and just before taking a sip of his coffee and retorts, "You should probably improve your diet if that's true."

"You suck. I can't believe you got me with that!" Lance shakes his head while he puts the compact away, not even trying to hide the smile spread across his face.

Keith looks entirely pleased with himself when he says "Yep!" and lifts a hand to pop his chin up on. When Lance's attention is settled back on him he asks "So, really, what do you do?" 

Lance looks to his left and right and then leans across the table and gestures for Keith to lean in a little closer. Keith gives him a skeptical look before indulging and Lance proceeds to quietly utter "I'm a deepweb hitman."

Keith groans and smacks a cackling Lance's arm. "You're awful."

"Okay, okay, I'll be serious now. I'm the resident show presenter at the planetarium on Ivy Street downtown." He proclaims.

"That actually sounds really cool." And Lance goes on to explain all of the things he does and what all of his favorite shows are which leads them to different topics and before they know they've been so focused on each other and exchanging stories and laughs that they hadn't even notice it nearing closing time until their waitress comes to the table and very bluntly informs them about it. They both apologize profusely and leave her a hefty tip.

"Thank you so much! You guys have a good night!" Lance calls to staff before closing the door to the diner. He turns and fixes Keith with a soft smile. "Can I walk you to your bike?" 

"I wouldn't mind that." 

The walk is short and silent for the most part, but not in a way that's uncomfortable. When Keith is lifting the seat to get his helmet Lance shakes his head and whistles. "I'm not going to lie to you, the whole motorcycle thing, it's uh, really doing it for me."

Keith lowered himself onto the bike, raised the kickstand, and snapped his helmet tight just in time for Lance to finished his sentence "Want me to give you a ride?"

Lance bit his bottom lip hard and let out a long breath"As incredibly tempting as that is, and I'm not joking when I say that because oh man. Seriously. You are...yeah. But I literally live," he lifts his hand to point to the apartment building directly across the street from where they're standing, "right there. But next time, definitely yes please. Which... um speaking of a next time." He swallows nervously. "I'm presenting a show at the planetarium on Monday at 6:30 and it's only like an hour long so if you would maybe, you know, want to come or meet up after or something like that, I would..." Some laughter spills out and he continues, "You know regularly I would try to play it really cool and say something like 'I wouldn't be totally opposed to that' but I really like you like... a lot? I've kind of had a crush on your since you spilled your apparently high sugar content coffee on my favorite shirt and I may or may not have been trying to work up the nerve to ask you out all semester. So. I get if you don't want to or you're busy or something, but I want to see you again if you're okay with that and I would be ridiculously stoked if you could come to my show and maybe get actual big kid drinks or something after? I mean if you-"

"Lance."

"Yeah?"

Keith reached forward and grabbed the boy's hand "I would love to."

And maybe Keith botched the numbers when he figured ghost whispering came with a 1000 kilowatt smile, because the one Lance gave him was at least ten times brighter than that. 

"Okay. Cool. Cool. coolcoolcoolcool. Um. Then, yeah, I will see you on Monday."

Jeez, Keith is gonna need this kid to stop being so cute, because he has that whole stoic reputation to uphold... okay so maybe he doesn't and in reality he sheds a tear or two when he watches baby hippo videos on youtube, but still! "It's a date."

"Cool!"

"You said that already."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Bye Lance." Oh god, he already feels all bubbly from just saying this guys name. What has he gotten himself into?

"Bye Keith." Lance gives him one more smile and readjusts the backpack on his shoulders before crossing the street. Keith starts the engine and pulls away on his bike. He's never actually looked forward to a Monday before and now he can't wait for it. 

 

(An Epilogue, of sorts) 

Just before falling asleep a sudden thought struck Keith and he yanked his phone off of the charger to scrolled through his contacts until he found the one he was looking for. He tapped the call button and after three rings he was answered with a groggy, admittedly adorable "Keith?"   
   
He wasted no time "Am I the ghost date you accidentally went on? Are you about to pull some Sixth Sense shit on me? I haven't watched a lot of movies but my older brother's boyfriend was obsessed with that one for like 2 weeks and I caught enough to know that the main dude... wait what is that actor's name?"

Keith heard Lance yawn into the phone. "As an avid action movie lover, the fact that you're blanking on Bruce Willis's name is frankly disturbing to me. But please, go on."

Keith briefly wondered if a he would ever be able to hold a conversation with Lance without rolling his eyes at least once every five minutes. He found that he didn't particularly mind it. "Whatever, yeah, in the movie Bruce Willis finds out he's was actually one of the ghosts the kid he's helping was seeing all along. I'm not that guy am I?"

"No Keith, even though the amount of sugar you put in your coffee surely should have killed you by now, you are without a shadow of a doubt very gorgeous and very alive." 

"....Okay, I just wanted to check."

"It's cool, can I go back to sleep now?"

"Yeah, sorry."

"No worries," another yawn, "I'll text you in the morning."

Keith tugged his blankets back over himself and grunted "No memes."

"Don't be a party pooper Keith. Okay I'm already falling asleep, goodnight! Have sweet dreams."

"You too Lance, goodnight."

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr under stumblemeister! (I tried linking it and failed miserably)


End file.
